Vending machine



H. T. PROBASCO VENDING MACHINE Dec. 29, 1953 Filed April 27, 195o INVENTOR. /I/awleousco .tarmzy I Il Patented Dec. Z9, l953 uiiED STATES TENT: OFFICE I VENDING MACHNE Application April 27, 1950, Serial No. 158,468

3 Claims.

This invention relates in general to vending machines for dispensing articles in measured quantities and partaking of the broad characteristics of the apparatus described in my application iiled November 13, 1948, Serial No. 59,798 now Patent No. 2,537,317 issued January 9, 1951, but having for a particular object the provision of an article vending machine embodying novel improvements in and associated with the dispensing means for uniformly limiting the numbers or quantities of articles. dispensed in successive operations especially when the dispensable articles are solid, hard, irregular as to size and form and are in the form of charms or. novelties pleasing to children.

In the consideration of the present improvements over the apparatus disclosed in my Said pending application for patent it may be understood that said prior apparatus was structurally designed to freely dispense measured quantities of products such as nuts, chewing gum, candy and other crushable foods, whereas, the present invention is effective for adapting the apparatus of said prior application for patent for dispensing rm, solid or hard articles of small but different size and or" diiierent form, with equalv facility, in substantially uniform number 0.1'. quantity and Without injury to the, dispenser or to the dispensed articles, and Without retarding orclogging the dispensing mechanism.

Hence, this invention is restricted to the. dispenser and associated mechanism independently and in combination and an object is to provide in a vending machine for the` purpose described embodying a rotatable pocketed dispenser, and a stationary article holder superposed on and under which the dispenser rotates,v whereby articles are delivered to a plurality of pocketsin the dispenser and are moved in an arcuate path toward an outlet, and detentv means at a xed point in the movement of the dispenser which when engaged by the articles will yield to accommodate the movement thereunder of articles of diierent size and contour and yet obstruct the movement of over-sized or surplus articles to dispensing position.

In my said prior application for patent I disclosed a well known form of detent means for preventing the over-dispensing of a predetermined quantity of articles which were resilient and yieldable by pressure of approaching articles thereagainst as the dispenser is rotated and including a series of closely wound brushes fixed at4 their upper ends to a common support and free at` their lower ends, to. yield. so asY not; to

damage the products moved thereunder ina dis-- pensmg operation, but in such case th dis-- pensable articles were o substantially uniform size and character, Whereas in the instant case the articles may be ofv various size, character and form, and it is, therefore, an. object to pro--l vide a detent means which. includes a pluralityy ci' resilient elements individually and independently yieldable not only in the direction in which.

the articles move toward dispensing position.. but also upwardly from the plane of the articles..

Other objects may' appear as the description 0f my present improvements progressesf I have shown a preferred form of mechanfsm embodying my invention in the accompanying drawing, in which A Fig. i is an elevational view. partir in section. oi a vending machine showingA the application of my present improvements thereto;

Fig. 2 is a plan View of the-dispensing unit .on line 2--2` of Fig, 1 Withxthe container removed;

Fig. 3 is. a. perspective view; of.v a stationary xture disposed above a rotatable dispensing element and including yieldable elements for leveling the contents of `the pockets the dispensing element and preventing` more than predetermined quantities oigthe dispensablearticles from being dispensed from the machine;

Fig. 4 is a` fragmentary elevational view of the stationary and movable dispensingelements showing how the. resilient detents yield one direction to permit passage. of` flaty articles therebeneath;

Fig. 5 is a view tot the.` dispensing element showing howl the detents yield in two directions to permit passage therebeneathk of relatively larger articles of similar or different formvand size; and

Fig. 6 isa fragmentary sectional, view of the yieldable detents on linev 6-6 of Fig. 4..

While my present improvements as shown in the. several views of the drawing` are capableA of use in several types of. vending machines, Ij have shown and will describe. my said. improvements as when adapted to a machine of my invention as disclosed` in my said. pending. application for I'B, C and D for securing said several parts together.

Member C forms a support for a multiple pocketed rotatable dispenslng element G which is disposed horizontally on the bottom I of a well 2 and has a central hub 3 which seats on a central boss 4 of bottom I and is adapted for rotation as by means of an external knob 5 fixed to a shaft 6 which bears a gear 'l held in mesh with suitable gear teeth 8 or corresponding apertures in a peripheral portion of element G, or otherwise not material to this invention. Operating shaft 6 may be supported in the front wall 9 of housing B or in a fixture. II)` borneby wall 9 and capable of supportingasuitableV coin operated unit for controlling operation of dispenser G. I i

Bottom I of member C has an aperture II therein with which pockets I2, I2 etc. of-'rdispenser G successively register as dispenser G is rotated. Pockets2.I.2..areiisp'aced apart by'segmentsl3, I3,letc. having. webs 'I3' in a common horizontal. plane and said pockets are open both :at their tops and bottomssothat they may re-f 'ceive changes of articles ma, etc. (Figsg 4 and .5) from Vthe interior. of `container D andwhen moved into registration with aperture .II, discharge the articles into andthrough a chute I4 for delivery at -anexternal mouth I5 to al user when a closing flap I6 is opened.

The mechanism so far ldescribed is not a part of the present invention but associated with my new improvements in an interdependent relationship-whichwill bereadily understood by the ensuingV description of thev new improvements.

A frusto-conical member ITIL is` mounted on housing member C at an annular flange I8 which is notchedat points I9, I9 to embrace pins 20, 29 borne by an-annular portionY 2| of member C, for holding member .I1 against rotation. A xture H of -thecharacter .best shown in Fig. 3 is mounted inand-secured-to member I1 .asby means of two or more screws or pins 22 extended throughlaper-tures 22 in a substantially semicircular top platel23for positively holding the portions 26 and 2l in a common radial plane so as to dispose the loweredges 26'and2l iofrsaid depending portions in a horizontal plane slightly above the websV I3; yof the segments I3 of dispenser G. Thus, there is provided a space 28 ,be-V tween portions26and2'lof a radial length substantially corresponding to the radial dimension of the pockets I2 of dispenser G so as to permit movement of the articles therethrough.

Plate 23 is formed with a recess 29 between portion 2l anda segment 30 and substantially corresponding in position to space 28, except that it is diametrically opposite spacew28, within which a plurality of resilient detents 3I are suspended in radial alinement from similar arms 32 which are coaxially pivotedhto platem23 on a pin 33 borne at opposite ends by depending flanges 34 and 35 of plate 23 at opposite marginsof recess 29. 7 e` Said detents are formed of closely wound steel springs which are-anchored at their upper coils to the free ends of-arms 32 and are of suflicient length and tension thatwhen vmounted as shown in the path of the. articles in pockets I2 of the fdisp'enser. i they' wi11"yle1d'iby '.tpressurexofy the '4 articles thereagainst so as to permit passage of a normal quantity of articles therebeneath but will prevent passage of a surplus of articles and thereby normalize or measure a predetermined quantity at each operation of the dispenser.

It will be understood that when the dispensable articles are of uniform size and character and especially of relatively small size, the detents 3| do not necessarily flex but merely serve to scrape the top of the dispenser and push back or prevent the passage of more than a predetermined quantity of articles beneath the detents.

But when the articles are sufficiently large the detents yield to a substantial extent to permit passage of the articles thereunder. The extent to which the detents can yield when not borne by the arms 32 is limited even for use with articles of uniform size and it is desirable to extend the range of their usefulness to articles of uniformly maximum size :as well as selectively to articles of 'various size; hence the provision of the arms 32 for affording yleldability of the detents upwardly as well as forwardly and without undue forwardyielding of the detents. Thus, the detents are of inherent tension against forward yielding and the arms 32 are tensioned against upward yielding as by means of springs 3B which are intermediately coiled at 31 around pin 33 with their free ends 38 bearing against arms 32 andtheir other ends anchored at 39 to plate 23.

In operation, as the dispenser G is rotated for a fraction of a revolution necessary to move one of the article filled pockets I2 into registration with outlet II by `turning handleor knob 5, the

contents of such pocket will drop into and through chute I4 and lodge in mouth I5 where they are accessible to a user. In the meantime as the dispenser is so moved the contents of succeeding lpockets I2 will be brushed by the detents 3l and surplus quantities thereof will be prevented from passage beneath the brushes although the brushes will yield forwardly and upwardly to a suiicient extent which will permit passage therebeneath of articles of different size, form and character.

l -InLother types of vending machines the resilient'- detents have been rigidly anchored at their upper extremities and were of suicient number to extend substantially across the dispenser and because the detents could not yield upwardly'the apparatus was not of sufficient yieldability and selectivity as to permit passage under the detentsv of any but articles of substantially uniformvsize,rform and character.

In the instant apparatus it is apparent that because the relatively few detents 3l are radially alined in the path `of the articles as the pockets approach discharging' position instead of a greater numberfdiametrically alined across the dispenser, and further because the detents independently yield both forwardly and upwardly, the dispensing'of articleswhich cannot be vended from other types of machines is not only possible but is effectively accomplished by a machine embodying my invention and ,without possibility of damage to the .vended articles orv parts of the machine.

I claim:

1 1. In a vending machine: the combination with a horizontally disposed rotatable dispenser formed with a shallow receptacle for receiving articles from a container thereabove, nof a vfixture formed with a horizontal web overlying a segment of said" receptaclela'iid having 'a recess in a portionthe'r'eof," aS-plurality of. parallel arms of 'dat new cross section coaxially hinged to said fixture at their rear extremities and normally disposed flat- Wise of said web in said recess, means for 'individually tensioning said arms to urge their forward extremities downwardly, and separate coiled wire detents anchored at their upper ends to the forward ends of said arms in radial alinement over said receptacle, said detents being free to yield bodily below and upwardly with said arms when engaged by articles in said receptacle as the dispenser is rotated, so as to limit passage of articles thereunder and restrain passage of an excess number of articles in a dispensing operation.

2. In a vending machine: the combination as set forth in claim 1 in which said xture has depending portions extended from the unrecessed section of said iixture with an opening therebetween to permit unrestrained passage of any HAROLD THOMAS PROBASCO.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,051,075 Breen Jan. 21, 1913 1,834,721 Mitchell ,Dec. 1, 1931 1,955,368 Hoberg et al Apr. 17, 1934 1,970,686 Bolen Aug. 21, 1934 1,977,837 Vogel Oct. 23, 1934 

